Part I, Chapter 3, Aaron Summary and Analysis

Edgefield was conquered by the Union Army on June 21st, 1865. Whites were mortified and African-Americans were overjoyed, including Aaron Bosket. However, Aaron had to sign a sharecropping labor contract with a white planter in the Mount Willing area to get a job. The sharecropper system effectively reduced African-Americans to peons. But in March 1867, Southern states were forced to give blacks the right to vote. African-Americans outnumbered whites in Edgefield and voted for Republicans, one white and four black.

Many whites were enraged by black assertions of equality and feared that there was no mechanism to control them. White supremacy had to be reestablished. This attitude brought on a guerrilla war of terrorism against blacks. Gangs of whites started to attack blacks and white Republicans. Much violence was promoted by disputes between white planters and black...